Current events in the words of the students of Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur

technology

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events and/ or publicly available information. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

The market redesign of telecom market by the launch reliance jio has re-triggered the trend of mergers and acquisitions among tel-cos. The sector of telecommunication has seen several mergers in the past 4 years’ like MTS and Aircel merging in Reliance communications. But this merger talks between is Idea and Vodafone is about the fight to become no. 1 tel-cos in the country. It is about adding new customers and grow revenue market share(RMS), adding value to customer service by the high end experience of Vodafone and Idea’s distinct corporate ecosystem to drive the targeted synergies towards a healthier bottom-line. This merger will result in the country’s largest tel-co replacing Bharti Airtel.

Reliance Jio started its work by officially acquiring 95% of the shares of Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd (HFCL) in 2012. But this plan started much before in 2010 when reliance industries on back hand with help of HFCL took PAN India license for 4G spectrum such that the other companies does not come to know and the spectrum could be purchased at much lower cost in 2010 spectrum auctions by TRAI. This blasting entry by Reliance industries in telecom sector in 2012 via Project Vijay, later changed to Reliance Infotel and then Reliance Jio created a bruising impact on the existing telecom companies in the market like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Tata Docomo, and BSNL. Specially the free voice and data service by Reliance Jio that was to be given till December 2016 and later extended till March 2017 has resulted in worse quarter for telecom companies disturbing their revenue model and decreasing their profits by as much as 60%.

To fight the current scenario Vodafone Group doesn’t have much of the choice but to accelerate its expansion moves in India- likely with the help of Idea Cellular. Although this acquisition will have several road blocks like Indus tower stake holding, regulatory hurdles associated with spectrum caps and significant market power in terms of combined customer base and RMS, but it can be dealt in a year time and by surrendering excess spectrum. Another major problem the existing tel-cos face against Jio is that they own license of only limited states across India like Idea have of only 11 circles, Vodafone in 14 circles, airtel in 16 circles only whereas Reliance Jio owns PAN India license across the country.

In a country like India whose telecommunication network is the second largest in the world by number of telephone users (both fixed and mobile phone) with 1.053 billion subscribers as on 31 August 2016 this process of competitiveness and mergers will not only create a big telecom giant in India but also will increase the competitiveness in the Indian telecom market in terms of providing quality service, technology and providing a competitive pricing to customer base in terms of adding value for them. And this competition will further facilitate a faster growth of country in a new direction towards the new era of digital transformation. The path on which the journey of success has started and will go beyond the infinity.

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events and/ or publicly available information. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

Last week, on India’s Republic Day, Indian space agency ISRO gave the country its best gift by successfully testing its most powerful cryogenic engine, code-named C25. It was tested for a duration of 50 seconds at ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC) in Mahendragiri. This is the same technology which was used in Saturn V, which carried man to the moon in 1967. By testing an engine this powerful in the first attempt, ISRO has once again demonstrated its ability to work in new areas.

For those who are unfamiliar with this technology, Cryogenics is the study of substances at a temperature as low as 150 degree Celsius and lower. Since Cryogenic engines use liquid Oxygen and liquid Hydrogen as fuels at this temperature, they can be tricky to operate. Thus far, the US, Japan, China, France and Russia are the only countries to have tested Cryogenic engines.

In my opinion, this is a great news for India. Since Russia denied this technology to India under US pressure, it is a huge accomplishment for them to develop such a complex technology. With a powerful C25 backing the GSLV Mark III rocket, India is looking forward to launching its second moon mission – the Chandrayaan 2.

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events and/ or publicly available information. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

As per the scientists, Milky Way is being pushed through space by cosmic dead zone. It is known that our galaxy is being pulled through space, but cosmologists suspected it was being pushed as well.The constellation is loacated on the farthest side of Lacerta, the Lizard, the vast patch of nothingness appears to have a striking dearth of galaxies compared to the rest of its cosmic neighbourhood.

The Shapely attracter being the attracting obstacle, pulling the Wilky Way galaxy, but research showed the pushing force by a Dipole repeller. A 3D map of the nesrest galaxies show a steady flow of galaxies towards the Shapley attractor and away from another region of space almost directly behind the Milky Way on the same axis. The movement of Milky Way depend on the gravitational attraction attraction of the galaxies around. With increased distance from Wilky Way, the attracting force diminishes and at regions devoid of galaxies, give rise to repelling force

So from the studies done at Imperial College London even shows that with increased voids in space, lack of galaxies at a particular direction, leads to a pushing force ,with an attracting force from the distant and closely spaced galaxies around Milky Way.

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events and/ or publicly available information. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

Currently, the Internet is mainly operated by humans. Certainly, there are miles of fiber optic cabling and millions of routers around the world directing Internet traffic and hundreds of server farms that are crunching numbers for optimal service. But in the core of it, the Internet is a person-to-person network and the electronics are merely there to facilitate that network.

The Internet of Things creates a network of multiple devices that communicate with each other without human involvement. This device-to-device connection mostly involves the collection of data and the processing of that data so that said devices can make their own decisions and act accordingly. Therefore the name: Internet (connectivity) of Things (devices).

The Internet of Things is a concept that requires three things in the core:

A technique for devices to be interconnected,

A technique for devices to gather data,

A technique for devices to process that data and make decisions accordingly.

This interconnectivity has huge implications for efficiency and automation. When utilized effectively, this no-human-involved sort of self-device-management frees us up to spend our time elsewhere. In the future, maybe it’ll save us as little as a few minutes per day or as much as several hours per day, but all of it adds up to big gains in the long run.

The Internet of things will touch every corner of our life in future. One of the common scenarios will be the prescriptive medication. A track on our health and daily habits could aid hospitals to predict ills in advance. Other sector of IOT application will be Utility- the smart electricity grid, the smart meters, connected grids and sensors in windmill and solar panels could aid us to track and manage energy usage and help us to build predictive modeling to schedule downtimes and efficient energy usage. IOT can be applied on a large scale as well such as Traffic management. If the city’s infrastructure was expanded to include roadside sensors and satellite imaging, that data could be used to analyze traffic pattern around the city and dynamically adjust the traffic light operations to minimize the choke points and jams.

The most disruptive application of IOT will be it the manufacturing sector, which will transform what things are manufactured but more importantly ‘How things are manufactured’. The future of manufacturing plant will be the Modular factory units which will be flexible manufacturing factories and integrated logistics. IOT will aid in Virtual production which involves Digital plant with Virtual inspection, through this we will be able to control and manage manufacturing facilities from miles away. Collaborative robots will aid in smart manufacturing, the activities which involves precision, personalized tasks and risk in manufacturing will be done easily. The Radio Frequency Identification (RDIF) will aid in finished products tracking as well as in real time location systems and online monitoring process, vendor parts etc.

In such a interconnected environment Data security is extremely important. Device-to-device connection is all good and dandy until a human decides to spoof part of that connection and remotely hijack a device for malpractices. This isn’t a huge problem for something like device-regulated home temperature, but losing control of city-wide traffic could spell disaster. And then there are device malfunctions. We all know how software and hardware can both be buggy, and sometimes those bugs are quite major. With regard to the Internet of Things, buggy hardware (errors in data collection) and buggy software (errors in data processing) can throw massive wrenches into the large systems that future generations may grown to depend on.

One might wonder, if we have reached at too much complexity (IOT), but the future generation of kids would think nothing of it. It seems their wonderful plastic human brains could adapt to any acceleration technology and embrace it lovingly. IOT, whatever way we think about it, whatever way we think it will turn out to be- IOT is happening. Every major global government and every major economic block is investing heavily in IOT. There are already hundred of million things connected to internet we are heading to hundred of billion things or possibly trillion trillions. And it will change our life that’s one certainty.

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events and/ or publicly available information. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

The thing about technology and innovation is that it always keeps evolving and brings out the best. With the current advancement in technology, many companies such as Tesla, Google, Hyundai, BMW and others are utilising artificial intelligence to come up with driverless cars. It’s one thing to make something like that for US or European roads, but building one for the Indian roads can be considered as a whole new feat, and its Tata Elxsi, which has taken upon itself to accomplish the same.

Tata Elxsi is a part of $100 billion Tata group, headquartered in Bengaluru. It is a design company that blends technology, creativity and engineering to help customers transform ideas into world-class products and solutions. Now, it would be unwise to compare Tata Elxsi’s latest model with that of Tesla or BMW, but considering the availability and affordability of the Tesla cars, Tata Elxsi’s driverless cars would be something that the Indian markets would look forward to.

In 2014, the company modified a Tata Zest sedan and developed various technologies to make it work. In 2015, it demonstrated its self-developed technology at the CES event, held a Las Vegas, Nevada. The company has come a long way since then. Last week it started testing its cars on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

With Tata Motor’s ambition to be no 3 car maker, its recent launch of lifestyle SUV Hexa and Tata Elxsi’s innovative technology, we can expect that it won’t be long when we see a driverless Tata car.

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events and/ or publicly available information. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

The Google Lunar XPRIZE (GLXP) is a space competition being by XPRIZE with tech-giant Google being its principal sponsor. The challenge invites privately funded spaceflight teams to achieve the goal of becoming the first to land a privately funded robotic spacecraft on the Moon. After landing, the craft should travel 500 meters, and transmit back high-definition video and images. The winner can bag a purse of USD 20 million.

Recently, the organizers have announced the names of five finalists which includes Team Indus from India. SpaceIL from Israel, Moon Express based in the United States, International Synergy Moon and Japan-based Hakuto complete the line-up of the finalists. The teams will be aiming to launch their missions by the end of 2017. Participation of private players and corporate is a big boost for space technology. Multiple independent research and development projects are being carried out worldwide resulting in lesser reliance on organizations like NASA for space exploration projects. Promoting a healthy competition is also essential in improvement of space technologies and funding from various corporate giants are ensuring that there are no hurdles in the path of technological advancements.

Inclusion of Team Indus from India among the finalists is a matter of pride for all Indians. The team is based in Bangalore and will be using PSLV-XL launch vehicle of ISRO to launch their craft. The success of this team can be an immense boost to Indian space exploration interests and can encourage more Indian companies to take initiatives. Moreover, it can inspire a generation of Indians to consider careers in science and technology. Thus, success of Team Indus is indeed very much essential for India.

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events and/ or publicly available information. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

Blackberry is all set to bring the Crisis communication platform to India using Athoc.This is a secured network technology that can help in situations like the Chennai Cyclone when the entire communication network was disrupted. AtHoc was used by Microsoft to warn its employees to not come to office during the cyclone.

The awareness about employee safety and business continuity plan is rising making the time ripe for the introduction of this technology. It provides a unified platform to send out a common message in terms of crisis / natural disasters when all network communciations fail . The service is delivered through on campus infrastructure for sensitive sectors like Defense to ensure critical information is safely delivered without being intercepted and through Cloud for commercial customers.

Blackberry is targeting markets such as defense, government agencies, airport authorities and various metro rail corporations apart from the Corporate sector. The suite can be used through various channels such as text, phone call, email and voicemail. Athoc expects to get as much as 15-20% of its revenue through India in the coming years.

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events and/ or publicly available information. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

With our love soaring at all time high for Social Media, uploading an uncountable number of selfies, usfies, and those trip albums every day has become a habit for most of us. According to BusinessInsider, more than 1.8 billion images are uploaded everyday on Social media platforms like Facebook, Flicker, Instagram and Whatsapp. But, we hardly think about the backend processes that these Social Media companies undergo to make the experience pleasing. With increasing resolution of the cameras, the images size up and to view them high bandwidth of the internet is utilized. This tends to be a costly affair for people residing in countries where internet connection is spotty and comes with high cost. Google has found the solution to this problem in the lap of Machine Learning and has come up with RAISR.

RAISR or Rapid and Accurate Image Super Resolution is a technology that employs Machine Learning to generate high-quality versions of low-resolution images. So, an image of 100 KB can be efficiently reduced to 25 KB without compromising the image quality. The underlying process involves the learning and training on a pair of a high and a low-quality image. It results in the creation of filters that are then applied to each pixel of the low-quality image, adding more details to it. Now, even though there have been other technologies that work in the same direction, the benefit that Google boasts about RAISR is that it is 10 to 100 times faster and reduces the bandwidth usage by more than 75%.

Google has already started testing it on Google+ platform and a set of Android devices by implementing this technology on 1 billion images every week. Google certainly seems excited about how this technology is going to evolve, making user experience only better.

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events and/ or publicly available information. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

In Saturday’s rail derailment, at least 39 people were killed and 50 others were injured as seven coaches of Jagdalpur-Bhubaneshwar Express were derailed near Kuneru station in Vizianagaram distric of Andhra Pradesh. The reasons behind this accident are still unknown and the investigations are going on.

This is the 3rd rail accident in as many months, taking the overall death toll close to 150. The frequency at which these accidents are occurring shows the negligence of Indian Railways in improving their safety mechanisms. Millions of people travel daily in trains, still very less efforts are made to make their journeys safe. Though Mr. Suresh Prabhu has tried to implement various safety initiatives, but the size of railway network and the inherent problems in the working of Indian Railways have made it difficult for him to improve the safety records.

The 2 major causes of these rail accidents are lack of manpower and lack of technological usage by Railways. Most of the past rail derailments have occurred due to unmanned crossings and human errors. Investments should be made to enhance the technology usage and making the railway systems automated to improve accuracy of signalling and crossing. Apart from this, the Railways should ensure that basic safety accessories are present in all the compartments and not only in the A.C coaches. They should also be ready for disaster management, and the readiness should be such that rescue operations reach the site in least possible time.

Moving from manual operations to automation is the biggest challenge considering the scale of railways in India, but the sooner it is adopted the better it will be for passengers and Indian Railways.

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

What is a disruptive technology? According to Clayton M. Christensen, an Harvard Business School professor a disruptive technology is a new emerging technology that unexpectedly displaces an established one. Disruption is not a new phenomenon. It has been happening from time immemorial.

Civilized society disrupted the lifestyle of early man, as earlier he was required to everything. But as social structures progressed, everyone started working in their area of expertise. 50 years back, advent of computer disrupted the typewriter industry. And now has come the time of startups’ where disruptions are happening everyday.

Through all these examples, we can see only one thing that the frequency of disruptions has increased over time.

Next question which comes is, how is it bothering us. And if we see we can find that disruption is changing how value is being created by businesses. The new value chains, with improved efficiencies can promise sustainable growth with the present level of resources. What it means is that, only more frequent disruption can supply for the growing human consumption.

What is in our hands? How can we let more disruptions happen? Everyone can contribute to facilitate disruptions happen by having an open mind-set and reforming the education system.